Giancarlo Politi. FRANCESCO BONAMI IS THE NEW
DIRECTOR OF THE VENICE BIENNALE. http://amsterdam.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-ro-0203/msg00053.htmlWe are extremely pleased to learn that Francesco Bonami has been
appointed director of the next Venice Biennale. With Francesco Bonami,
the Venice Biennale will be directed by a prepared and efficient curator.
We are positive that thanks to Francesco Bonami, the Venice Biennale
will be finally a real survey of contemporary art, a meeting point for
the great news and the great artists of today.
Flash Art, its staff and it readers, wish to Francesco Bonami all the
best for his new work.

BONAMI'S PAINTING PLANS FOR VENICEhttp://www.artforum.com/news/week=200304La
Repubblica offers some answers as it previews a few of the
exhibitions planned by the Biennale's artistic director, Francesco
Bonami. The historical survey "Painting. From Rauschenberg to
Murakami 1964/2003," to be located at the Correr in association
with Venice's municipal museums, will include works by not only Robert
Rauschenberg and Takashi Murakami, but also David Hockney, John Currin,
Frank Auerbach, Lucio Fontana, Alberto Burri, Domenico Gnoli, Francesco
Clemente, and Gino De Dominicis. "We are beginning with 1964,"
explained Bonami to La Repubblica, "because it's the year of
a great transformation in the Biennale. When Rauschenberg was a
prizewinner at Venice, the balance between Europe and the United States
was shifted. The world of art changed. We are presenting about forty
works that were excluded during certain periods, which always existed
parallel to the Biennale, but were associated with exclusion, and the
debate about what is or is not painting. We are trying to show and to
understand what happened."

Christopher Emsden. A globe-trotting arts curator scopes out the
lagoon. Francesco Bonami, the artistic director of the next Venice
Biennial, is a nomad on a missionhttp://www.italydaily.it/Italian_life/Style/aprile/bonami.shtml
Bonami is likely to brush off complaints about his nomination made by
Culture Undersecretary Vittorio Sgarbi, who explicitly wanted the
Australian critic Robert Hughes and a greater emphasis on figurative
painting than the video-and-installation-happy Biennials of the recent
past.
He received a boost on Wednesday when Franco Bernabè, chairman of
the Biennial, dismissed Sgarbi's polemic as a recrudescence of Soviet
social realism and emphasized that Bonami was "no ideologue."
Bonami's "clinical" curatorial credo hinges on his insistence
that "a work of art synchronizes with the society in which we live."
He is also outspokenly against what he calls the "air bubble"
or aseptic aura that he says too many young European artists try to put
around their work today.
Still, his hip desire to break down the Modernist love of the "white
cube" exalting an isolated work has not always proven successful in
practice.
Susan Snodgrass, a critic for Art in America, took Bonami's Slovenian
show to task, saying it included so many time-based film and video works
that a visit became a disjunctive and even listless experience. His
"attempt to subvert the traditional relationship between viewer and
object simply replaced the white cube with the black box," she
concluded.

Adriano Donaggio. High political tension behind the
scenes at the Venice Biennale. A stand-off between the Italian
government and the Biennale’s administration over freedom of choicehttp://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=9372The English architecture critic, Deyan Sudjic, was appointed head of
the architecture biennale and the selection of the director of the
visual arts came as a genuine surprise: Francesco Bonami is a young
critic with enormous professional experience; Vittorio Sgarbi was
outraged. Mr Bernabè is smiling. In response to the Corriere
della Sera’s reminder that Mr Sgarbi had accused him of
neo-figurativism, Mr Bonami replied: the only genuine objections to the
Avant-garde in favour of figurative and realist artists came from
Zdanov’s Soviet Union. “Zdanovism”, the objection to abstract art
in favour of realist art, is therefore a Soviet phenomenon.

CONTROVERSY FROM NEW VENICE CURATOR - Artnet News, 5/14/02http://www.artnet.com/magazine/news/artnetnews/artnetnews5-14-02.asp
Francesco Bonami has roiled the waters by suggesting the
exposition include a Palestinian pavilion. As yet there's no official
word on the proposal. Israel has had its own exhibition space at Venice
for some time (at the 49th Biennale, it held an installation by Uri
Katzenstein); no Arab country -- save Egypt -- has its own pavilion.

Dreams and Conflicts - The Viewer's Dictatorship. - The Biennale
di Venezia presents the 50th International Art Exhibition directed by
Francesco Bonami.http://www.universes-in-universe.de/car/venezia/bien50/txt/e-concept.htm"Dreams and Conflicts" will be an exhibition focused at
the same time on art as a personal tool of a personal experience and
conviviality. A show through which is possible to have access to the
complexity of a world made by groups of individuals defined by multiple
and diverse necessities. An exhibition constructed with multiple
projects to test the strength of that ideal community where the creative
process of the contemporary artist is active. Dreams and Conflicts will
not be a show about political art but a reflection on the politics of
art. The experience of the viewer facing the unique vision of the artist.
Two contemporary subjects divided simply by a different gaze.

BONAMI TO CURATE VENICE BIENNALEhttp://www.artnet.com/magazine/news/artnetnews/artnetnews3-27-02.aspChicago Museum of Contemporary Art curator Francesco Bonami, with
which the Italian-born curator and critic has long collaborated, issued
a congratulatory statement, saying "After the wild and obsolete
attempts of Italian and International curators (Achille Bonito Oliva,
Harald Szeemann) and Italy Minister of Culture Vittorio Sgarbi's
concerns about having a director unfamiliar with contemporary art (Jean
Clair, Robert Hughes), Venice will finally have a real professionist of
contemporary art." And this means what, exactly? At this early date,
Bonami remains mum, but in the past he has championed Maurizio Cattelan,
Giuseppe Gabellone, Koo Jeong A, Thomas Hirshhorn and Matthew Barney,
among others.

Jennifer Allen. Francesco Bonami Named Curator of
2003 Venice Biennale - 03.23.02http://www.artforum.com/news/week=200212
The appointment puts an end to growing speculation about the future of
the festival, which Italians have dubbed the "Soap-Biennale"
in recent months. It comes in the wake of a controversial attempt by
Vittorio Sgarbi, Italy's outspoken undersecretary for culture, to
appoint the Australian critic for Time magazine, Robert Hughes, as
curator. Despite Hughes's public refusal of the post earlier this month,
Sgarbi and secretary of culture Giuliano Urbani continued to pressure
Barnabè to select Hughes as curator as late as this week.Bernabè, the former director of Telecom Italia appointed by
Urbani last December, evidently has not succumbed to political pressure
and has sought to protect the Biennale's autonomy. Despite steadily
mounting criticism from cultural figures in Italy and abroad, President
Silvio Berlusconi's increasingly heavy-handed attempts to control
Italy's cultural institutions has threatened to jeopardize the council's
independence. Sgarbi, for his part, has called the decision "intolerable,"
and declared "open war" on Bernabè.

Massimiliano
Tonelli. The circuit’s thoughts on Francesco Bonamihttp://www.exibart.com/txt/ukNotizia.asp?IDNotizia=4601&IDCategoria=45
Many luminaries from the art world have written in to give their
personal responses to our study on Francesco Bonami.
- Katia Spadon – Galleria Morone. There is every reason to hope, given
the last Biennales, but what ART will there be for the great body of
spectators/art-lovers and potential collectors to encounter for the
first time? Thought should be at the command of the emotions, instead of
the removal of speculation...
- Ludovico Pratesi. I think the appointment of Bonami is the sign of a
very positive turn for the Italian artistic system, both in a
qualitative and a generational sense.
- Studio la Città - Hélène de Franchis, We cannot
but fervently congratulate ourselves with Bonami, which of course means
that we’re expecting a lot from him, as do many other contemporary art
experts and operators.
- Marcello Carriero. Most surely he will bring back Cattelan to the
Biennale, maybe even some polyester Politi
- Alfonso Artiaco. I’ve read it in the Corriere della Sera that, owing
to some political games, Bonami had merely been appointed as an
“explorer” – I hope that’s not the case.
- Federica Martini. I’m probably more intrigued by the reactions he
will stir abroad that by the Biennale itself – let’s hope for some
debate.

Suzy
Menkes. The fourth sex: probing the spirit
of adolescencehttp://www.iht.com/articles/83169.html
The cusp of adulthood is comprehensively captured in a brilliantly
executed multi-media exhibition at Florence's Stazione Leopolda. "The
Fourth Sex: the Extreme Territory of Adolescence" (until Feb. 8) is
under the auspices of Pitti Imagine Uomo.
"The idea is not a literal depiction of adolescence but to recreate
the mental and psychological state," says Francesco Bonami
The curators say that they did not want to focus on clothes - although
Bonami realizes that the rite of passage that his generation passed at
14, by switching from short to long pants, symbolized adulthood in a way
that no longer exists.

Elisabetta Povoledo. A stark new gallery joins
Turin's art communityhttp://www.italydaily.it/Art_e_culture/Features/settembre/Rebaudengo.shtml
The installations, photograph collages, mixed-media pieces and videos
that curator Francesco Bonami brought together for "Exit. New
geography of Italian art" were emphatically on the established
contemporary art track.
Bonami will curate next year's Venice Biennale for the visual arts,
which he has titled "Dreams and Conflicts, viewer dictatorship"
and many critics looked to "Exit" as a sample of things to
come.
"Exit is dedicated to young artists not because they will be famous
in ten years but to see what they are thinking right now," said
Bonami, explaining that he chose to cramp the space with so many artists
in order to broadly represent what was being produced.
He and his assistants looked at hundreds of artists and tried to choose
those they felt best captured today's "temporary moment of Italian
thinking." Accordingly, the exhibit featured entries ranging from
photographs and video art to pulsating beds lit up by plastic lights;
clusters of found weeds, painted tanks, a small tunnel boring through
the walls of the building, and a scattering of paintings.
For Bonami the fact that contemporary art oversteps national borders is
an offshoot of globalization which transcends schools or movements and
generates creativity through the clash of different ways of seeing.
"I sense the desire and at the same time the uncertainty of leaving
something behind," said Bonami paraphrasing novelist Elio Vittorini
who said that sometimes the fear of the worst was stronger than the
desire for something better.

Diane Ludin. Echoes: Contemporary Art in the Age of Endless
Conclusions
Edited by Francesco Bonamihttp://old.thing.net/ttreview/aprrev97.02.html
Thinking always of the many individuals who attempt to define art in the
nineties as post-conceptual, post-performance, post-identidy politics,
post-multicultural, post-colonial/imperial, post-economic apocalypse of
the 80's artmarket, and all of the social/economic factors that compose
our cultural context as self conscious cultural workers. All the essays
in "Echoes" share a need to find a way out of the dead zone
which art currently inhabits--they seek to point to works that are
moving through the cultural gridlock of modernism's attention to an
exclusive formalism in the visual arts and the post-modern End-ism of
the recent past.

Erik Wenzel. Art or Idiocy? Chicago: City on the
Verge of What?http://www.artic.edu/webspaces/fnews/2002-may/mayregulars7.html
Perhaps the most important piece of local news to mention is that the
MCA's Manilow senior curator, Francesco Bonami, has been selected to
curate the 2003 Venice Biennale. That's a big deal, kids. We're not
talking head curator of the U.S. Pavilion, we're talking curator of the
whole fucking thing. That's a tremendous shot in the arm, as they say in
the business world, for Bonami of course, but also for the MCA and
Chicago in general.

Peter Doroshenko interview with Francesco Bonami www.newartexaminer.org/archive/1199_interview.html
Well I think the blockbuster idea is a very tricky concept. First, of
all, which block do we have to bust? You know? If you have to bust the
block of Paris, it is one thing; if you are to bust the block of
Florence, it's another thing, or Madrid; it's still another. It's tricky.
The pressure comes in the trust of gaining confidence in our program. I
believe that the MCA, in bringing me on board, and in selecting
Elizabeth Smith [as the James W. Alsdorf Chief Curator] made a strong
statement that the museum can produce a consistent program of
exhibitions that will be challenging, and yet also attract consistent
audiences.

Franco Fanelli. First interview with Venice Biennale
chief. The director of next year's Venice Biennale talks about his
experiences as a curatorhttp://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/article.asp?idart=9274Most of all, journalism accustoms you to keeping deadlines in a very
professional manner, and it also keeps you up to date with the latest
developments. I worked for a monthly publication, and that is rather
like curating an exhibition a month. Art journalism is journalism in the
broadest sense; whatever anyone says, objectivity is as important for a
journalist as it is for a curator. The curator must not follow his own
personal taste, he must not support only certain artists or certain
trends. I may appreciate the work of a particular artist, but I have to
leave him out of any exhibition I curate if his work is not relevant to
the contemporary scene.
One problem with Italian artists (but not only them) is the “air
bubble” which artists, even the youngest ones, try to create around
their work.
I find there is a lack of the kind of experimental outlook which could
be found, for example, in Arte povera; the Arte povera artists did
everything they could not to isolate the piece of work. In the
exhibition in September I shall try to get rid of the aseptic aura which
surrounds the work of young artists today.
- I don’t agree with the people criticising Bucharest for wanting to
have its own biennale. Bucharest is a city with a culture of its own, an
identity of its own, and it has a perfect right to hold an exhibition of
contemporary art.

Anny Ballardini. An Interview With Francesco Bonami,
Curator Of The 50th Venice Biennalehttp://www.poetrybay.com/fall2002/ballardini_interview.html
- With an exhibit like the Biennale we enter Kairos, the opportunity,
opposed to Kronos, the museum institutions, that is the practice of
lasting in time. For the first time in history in the choice of a
curator, they applied a technical method and they reached me. A surprise
for everybody, first for the fact that by following a method a result
was given, and then, at a personal level, that they have chosen me who
has no method. The Biennale has as a thesis: internationality, its
antithesis is given by the national choice, from which there is a
synthesis represented by an international artist who encloses a national
entity still conserving an open and global vision. It is therefore the
same nature of the Biennale to represent a clash, reflected in “Dreams
and Conflicts”. The subtitle: “the viewer's dictatorship” is born
from the change that works of art have gone through in the last ten
years with videos and video-installations, the times of which oscillate
from 140’ to 270’.

Smadar
Sheffi. Ideas, not geography and not politics. Francesco
Bonami visits Israel in search of art for the Venice Biennale http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=239818&contrassID=2&subContrassID=5&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y I feel the role of the curator has changed. The dialogue
between curators and artists has changed and it is already impossible to
organize a huge exhibition based on the vision of only one man. The
world has opened up. Contemporary art is being created in many more
places and an exhibition does not have to be a catalog of what is going
on in the world. I think it will be interesting to curate a biennale
that is a kind of anthology, not novella - the curator will serve as the
editor of various texts. I did not want to work with what are called
"associate curators" because they usually have the status of
consultants and have no autonomy.
I have a bit of a problem with the dominance of the globalization idea.
I want to work with people with whom I have worked in the past or with
interesting people, regardless of geographic considerations. In the past
20 years there has been a tendency to act according to stereotypes -
there always has to be a black, Asiatic, or female - I try to avoid that.
Ideas are more important to me than geography.
I don't want to work that way. The art world is a small entity via which
it is possible to view the world. Politics is interesting when it
functions as a Trojan horse, when the work is not immediately identified
as political, but bears a political message. Art will not change the
world, but one can speak to the world via art, and that is what is most
important.
The role of art is to confront the viewer with ideas that are sometimes
different than his. There is no need to simplify that.
He met with artists and saw the works of some 150 artists. Bonami
received hundreds of artists' portfolios that the Foreign Ministry had
requested for the first time in an organized and open manner from
gallery owners and independent curators.
I feel there are fewer and fewer people in the West who have artistic
vision, and that is very dangerous. I would like my biennale to have
vision, even though I know that this is not rational - a vision is
fraught with failure, and it is clear that I want the biennale to please
everyone."ANNY BALLARDINI. ITALIAN LANGUAGE FILTERED THROUGH THE
EXPERIENCE OF JOURNALISM AND TRANSLATIONhttp://www.transference.org.uk/italiano_giornalismo_traduzione.htmFrancesco Bonami, future curator of the next 50th
Venice Biennale, whom I interviewed a few days ago, on my question on
the difference between the Italian and the American society, answered:
“In Italy, from a mono-cultural society we are starting toward a
multi-cultural one, and artists are taking on this monstrous change by
embracing it with fear but also with a certain courage. An extremely
interesting and very traumatic transformation.” I would broaden the
term of artists to include poets, philosophers, writers, the so-called
“intelligentsia” that has to bring forth changes, as it has always
done, and reveal themselves and have always shown themselves to be
extremely fragile.

The Nordic Pavilion in Venicehttp://www.oca.no/biennials/biennials.htmlIn 2003, The Office for Contemporary Art
Norway has the main responsibility for the contribution to the Nordic
Pavilion, which is curated by Anne Karin
Jortveit and Andrea
Kroksnes, both curators at The Museum of
Contemporary Art in Oslo. The title of the pavilion is «Devil-may-care»
and the selected artists areLiisa Lounila (FIN),
Kristina Bræin
(N) and Mamma Karin Andersson
(S). This is the first time in 15 years that female curators will be in
charge of the Nordic Pavilion

Jenifer
Johnston. Venice exhibition
will put Scots artists on world stagehttp://www.sundayherald.com/30593
A six-month tour to find an elite group of artists to rep resent
Scotland for the first time at the celebrated Venice Biennale -- the
world's premier contemporary arts showcase -- culminates on Tuesday when
the group will be named.
The unofficial shortlist for the Scottish contingent is a who's who of
vibrant young artists such as Toby Paterson, Martin Boyce and Rosalind
Nashashibi. Inclusion in the exhibition will mean international exposure
and prestige and place them in the top ranks of the artists of their
generation.

CONTROVERSY FROM NEW VENICE CURATOR - Artnet
News, 5/14/02http://www.artnet.com/magazine/news/artnetnews/artnetnews5-14-02.asp
Francesco Bonami has roiled the waters by suggesting the
exposition include a Palestinian pavilion. As yet there's no official
word on the proposal. Israel has had its own exhibition space at Venice
for some time (at the 49th Biennale, it held an installation by Uri
Katzenstein); no Arab country -- save Egypt -- has its own pavilion.

CHRIS OFILI TO REPRESENT BRITAIN AT VENICE BIENNALE
2003 - 19 July 2002http://www.britishcouncil.org/arts/vad/news/news.htm
The British Council is delighted to announce that Chris Ofili has been
selected to represent Britain at the next Venice Biennale of Art,
scheduled to take place from June - October 2003.
Chris Ofili is represented by Victoria
Miro Gallery, London and ‘Freedom One day’, his latest
exhibition, was recently shown there.

Who’s going to Venice? Dismembered Biennialhttp://www.raster.art.pl/english/english_teksty.htm
During a short talk with Raster magazine Bonami revealed his plan of
rearranging the respectful institution of the Venice Biennial. The 50th
edition of the Venice Biennial is going to be entitled „Dreams and
Conflicts”. Next year, instead of one, eight (!) simultaneous
exhibitions, prepared independently by eight curators will take place.
Bonami himself is preparing an exhibition concentrating on the young
generation of artists.
Bonami’s reformative ideas don’t concern the traditional exhibition
in national pavilions. Surprisingly early this year, Polish Ministry of
Culture, started looking for participants to the 2003 biennial.
Nobody can be sure about anything this year, as Waldemar Dabrowski - the
new minister of culture is said to have highly controversial contacts in
the art world. Let’s hope he’ll turn out insensitive to old
relationships.

Venice Biennial 2003 - The ministry keeps quiet, but
the news leak out. Is Drozdz the chosen one?http://www.raster.art.pl/english/english_teksty.htm
According to unofficial sources, the curator selected by Polish Ministry
of Culture to prepare an exhibition in the Polish pavilion during next
year’s Venice Biennial is Pawel Sosnowski, who suggested presenting
works of Stanislaw Drozdz - a classic of Polish visual poesy and
conceptualism. Such decision of the jury is a surprise - however not an
unpleasant one. Nevertheless it is yet another time that Pawel
Althamer’s candidacy is turned down, as well as this of Krzysztof
Wodiczko, which had strong support this year. The name of this year’s
curator - Pawel Sosnowski - is even more surprising than the fact of
choosing Stanislaw Drozdz, as Drozdz had not known Sosnowski until the
curator proposed his candidacy.

Korean Artist Kim Hong-hee Selected for Venice
Biennale. November 25, 2002http://www.korea.net/kwnews/content/xnews.asp?Number=20021125021
Artist Kim Hong-hee has been chosen to represent Korea in its national
pavilion at the next Venice Biennale, the Korean Culture and Arts
Foundation announced.
Kim, born in Seoul in 1948, studied Art History at Ewha Womans
University and Hunter College, and received a Master¡¯s in
Art History from Concordia University in Montreal, then a doctorate from
Hong-ik University.

Axis’ Kay Pallister co-curates SAC Biennale Showhttp://www.axisartists.org.uk/axishome/news.htm
For the first time the Venice Biennale 2003 will include independent
participation from both Scotland and Wales. For many years each country
has considered presenting their own artists in parallel to the
prestigious UK pavilion (which will show Chris Ofili in 2003), finally,
next year, both countries will make exhibitions celebrating their
emerging artists. The Scottish participation is supported by the
Scottish Arts Council and British Council Scotland and will be curated
by Kay Pallister, who was appointed recently as content curator at Axis.
She will curate the exhibition with Francis McKee, a curator and writer
from Glasgow. They are currently researching artists in Scotland and
have begun a series of studio visits throughout the length and breadth
of the country..

Bonami in Venice, a New French Culture Minister, and
More. - 05.15.02http://www.artforum.com/news/week=200220
BONAMI REVEALS PLANS FOR VENICE: According to an article in Il
Manifesto, the theme of the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003 will be
"Dreams and Conflicts." Curator Francesco Bonami, who
announced his project last week, will attempt to explore the gap between
"the dreams and the conflicts in which contemporary art is
constructed" and "give life to the increase in multiple
realities." In addition to restyling the Italian pavilion—a
project that will be undertaken by Italian architect, critic, and
curator Massimiliano Gioni—Bonami also intends to establish a national
pavilion for Palestine—a proposal that has met with criticism.
Biennale committee member Valerio Riva fears that the proposed pavilion
will lead to "anti-Semitic demonstrations."

Who’s going to Venice? Dismembered Biennialhttp://www.raster.art.pl/english/english_teksty.htm
During a short talk with Raster magazine Bonami revealed his plan of
rearranging the respectful institution of the Venice Biennial. The 50th
edition of the Venice Biennial is going to be entitled „Dreams and
Conflicts”. Next year, instead of one, eight (!) simultaneous
exhibitions, prepared independently by eight curators will take place.
Bonami himself is preparing an exhibition concentrating on the young
generation of artists.
Bonami’s reformative ideas don’t concern the traditional exhibition
in national pavilions. Surprisingly early this year, Polish Ministry of
Culture, started looking for participants to the 2003 biennial.
Nobody can be sure about anything this year, as Waldemar Dabrowski - the
new minister of culture is said to have highly controversial contacts in
the art world. Let’s hope he’ll turn out insensitive to old
relationships

Venice Biennial 2003 - The ministry keeps quiet, but
the news leak out. Is Drozdz the chosen one?http://www.raster.art.pl/english/english_teksty.htm
According to unofficial sources, the curator selected by Polish Ministry
of Culture to prepare an exhibition in the Polish pavilion during next
year’s Venice Biennial is Pawel Sosnowski, who suggested presenting
works of Stanislaw Drozdz - a classic of Polish visual poesy and
conceptualism. Such decision of the jury is a surprise - however not an
unpleasant one. Nevertheless it is yet another time that Pawel
Althamer’s candidacy is turned down, as well as this of Krzysztof
Wodiczko, which had strong support this year. The name of this year’s
curator - Pawel Sosnowski - is even more surprising than the fact of
choosing Stanislaw Drozdz, as Drozdz had not known Sosnowski until the
curator proposed his candidacy.

CONTROVERSY FROM NEW VENICE CURATOR - Artnet
News, 5/14/02http://www.artnet.com/magazine/news/artnetnews/artnetnews5-14-02.asp
Francesco Bonami has roiled the waters by suggesting the
exposition include a Palestinian pavilion. As yet there's no official
word on the proposal. Israel has had its own exhibition space at Venice
for some time (at the 49th Biennale, it held an installation by Uri
Katzenstein); no Arab country -- save Egypt -- has its own pavilion.

CHRIS OFILI TO REPRESENT BRITAIN AT VENICE BIENNALE
2003 - 19 July 2002http://www.britishcouncil.org/arts/vad/news/news.htm
The British Council is delighted to announce that Chris Ofili has been
selected to represent Britain at the next Venice Biennale of Art,
scheduled to take place from June - October 2003.
Chris Ofili is represented by Victoria
Miro Gallery, London and ‘Freedom One day’, his latest
exhibition, was recently shown there.

Korean Artist Kim Hong-hee Selected for Venice
Biennale. November 25, 2002http://www.korea.net/kwnews/content/xnews.asp?Number=20021125021
Artist Kim Hong-hee has been chosen to represent Korea in its national
pavilion at the next Venice Biennale, the Korean Culture and Arts
Foundation announced.
Kim, born in Seoul in 1948, studied Art History at Ewha Womans
University and Hunter College, and received a Master¡¯s in
Art History from Concordia University in Montreal, then a doctorate from
Hong-ik University.

Axis’ Kay Pallister co-curates SAC Biennale Showhttp://www.axisartists.org.uk/axishome/news.htm
For the first time the Venice Biennale 2003 will include independent
participation from both Scotland and Wales. For many years each country
has considered presenting their own artists in parallel to the
prestigious UK pavilion (which will show Chris Ofili in 2003), finally,
next year, both countries will make exhibitions celebrating their
emerging artists. The Scottish participation is supported by the
Scottish Arts Council and British Council Scotland and will be curated
by Kay Pallister, who was appointed recently as content curator at Axis.
She will curate the exhibition with Francis McKee, a curator and writer
from Glasgow. They are currently researching artists in Scotland and
have begun a series of studio visits throughout the length and breadth
of the country..

Massimiliano
Tonelli. The circuit’s thoughts on Francesco Bonamihttp://www.exibart.com/txt/ukNotizia.asp?IDNotizia=4601&IDCategoria=45
Many luminaries from the art world have written in to give their
personal responses to our study on Francesco Bonami.
- Katia Spadon – Galleria Morone. There is every reason to hope, given
the last Biennales, but what ART will there be for the great body of
spectators/art-lovers and potential collectors to encounter for the
first time? Thought should be at the command of the emotions, instead of
the removal of speculation...
- Ludovico Pratesi. I think the appointment of Bonami is the sign of a
very positive turn for the Italian artistic system, both in a
qualitative and a generational sense.
- Studio la Città - Hélène de Franchis, We cannot
but fervently congratulate ourselves with Bonami, which of course means
that we’re expecting a lot from him, as do many other contemporary art
experts and operators.
- Marcello Carriero. Most surely he will bring back Cattelan to the
Biennale, maybe even some polyester Politi
- Alfonso Artiaco. I’ve read it in the Corriere della Sera that, owing
to some political games, Bonami had merely been appointed as an
“explorer” – I hope that’s not the case.
- Federica Martini. I’m probably more intrigued by the reactions he
will stir abroad that by the Biennale itself – let’s hope for some
debate.

Bonami in Venice, a New French Culture Minister, and
More. - 05.15.02http://www.artforum.com/news/week=200220
BONAMI REVEALS PLANS FOR VENICE: According to an article in Il
Manifesto, the theme of the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003 will be
"Dreams and Conflicts." Curator Francesco Bonami, who
announced his project last week, will attempt to explore the gap between
"the dreams and the conflicts in which contemporary art is
constructed" and "give life to the increase in multiple
realities." In addition to restyling the Italian pavilion—a
project that will be undertaken by Italian architect, critic, and
curator Massimiliano Gioni—Bonami also intends to establish a national
pavilion for Palestine—a proposal that has met with criticism.
Biennale committee member Valerio Riva fears that the proposed pavilion
will lead to "anti-Semitic demonstrations."

Dismembered Biennial. Who’s going to Venice?http://www.raster.art.pl/english/english_teksty.htmBonami’s reformative ideas don’t concern the traditional
exhibition in national pavilions. Both, the curators, and the artists await in quiet excitation -
among the submitted candidates are: Pawel Althamer, Anna Baumgart,
Zuzanna Janin and Krzysztof Wodiczko. It is the third time when
Althamer’s candidacy being considered, will he finally succeed? Nobody
can be sure about anything this year, as Waldemar Dabrowski - the new
minister of culture is said to have highly controversial contacts in the
art world. Let’s hope he’ll turn out insensitive to old
relationships

According to unofficial sources, the curator selected by
Polish Ministry of Culture to prepare an exhibition in the Polish
pavilion during next year’s Venice Biennial is Pawel Sosnowski, who
suggested presenting works of Stanislaw Drozdz - a classic of Polish
visual poesy and conceptualism. Such decision of the jury is a surprise
- however not an unpleasant one.

Artnet News - 5/14/02. CONTROVERSY FROM NEW VENICE
CURATORhttp://www.artnet.com/magazine/news/artnetnews/artnetnews5-14-02.aspIs the intractable Middle East conflict coming to the 2003 Venice
Biennale? Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art curator Francesco Bonami,
who was named general curator of the biennale two months ago, has roiled
the waters by suggesting the exposition include a Palestinian pavilion. Visitors to the 48th Biennale three years ago may remember artist
Rirkrit Tiravanija planting a sapling to dedicate a new Thai pavilion,
but the site was covered over by an outdoor restaurant at the following
show two years later.

CHRIS OFILI TO REPRESENT BRITAIN AT VENICE BIENNALE
2003http://www.britishcouncil.org/arts/vad/news/news.htmThe British Council is delighted to announce that Chris Ofili has
been selected to represent Britain at the next Venice Biennale of Art,
scheduled to take place from June - October 2003.Chris Ofili is represented by Victoria
Miro Gallery, London and ‘Freedom One day’, his latest
exhibition, was recently shown there.

Korean Artist Kim Hong-hee Selected for Venice
Biennale. - November 25, 2002 17:53:50http://www.korea.net/kwnews/content/xnews.asp?Number=20021125021Kim, born in Seoul in 1948, studied Art History at Ewha Womans
University and Hunter College, and received a Master¡¯s in
Art History from Concordia University in Montreal, then a doctorate from
Hong-ik University.
Kim has organized many exhibitions, including ¡°The Soul of Seoul
Fluxus Festival¡± and ¡°Women, Its Difference and Power.¡±
She also curated ¡°InforArt¡± a special exhibition in the
Gwangju Biennale in 1995, for which she received a Presidential Award.
Kim was a commissioner of the Gwangju Biennale in 2000.
Kim has written several books, including ¡°Nam June Paik and His
Art,¡± ¡°Feminism. Video. Art,¡± ¡°The SeOUL
of Fluxus,¡± ¡°Women, Its Difference and Power¡±
and ¡°InfoART.¡± She has also worked as director of
Ssamzie Space, an alternative art venue in Seoul.

Yuko Hasegawa Utopia/Heterotopiahttp://www.jpf.go.jp/e/others/whats/0212/12_01.html
Utopia/Heterotopia is one interpretation of "Dream and Conflict,"
the general theme of this Biennale. Utopia is the imagined perfect place.
Yutaka Sone continues the physical and metaphorical journey toward the
unreachable goal of utopia, rendering the process in film, sculpture,
and drawings. Moving away from Japan, he resides in Los Angeles,
consciously pursuing a nomadic existence in places where he does not
belong as he continues his journey toward utopia in his day-to-day life.